It has been the conventional practice to hold the telephone and/or phone receiver to the mouth and ear with the use of the hand. Difficulties are encountered if the phone user is handicapped in the hands and/or arms and can't hold the phone or if the phone user needs their hands free to do other work. Our "hands-free" phone holder allows the phone to be used independently from the use of the hands. Two other main types of phone holders have been previously developed; one being the shoulder rest for a phone receiver and the other being the telephone headset. The disadvantages of the shoulder rest type phone holder are;
(1) they tend to make the neck sore or may cause a neck injury, PA0 (2) they can be used only on certain types of phones and, PA0 (3) they are restrictive to the user in that they restrict the neck, head, and shoulders from free movement. PA0 (1) they are designed to work on only special phone systems, PA0 (2) they are restrictive in that the phone user, in-most cases, is confined to a close proximity to the telephone unit and, PA0 (3) they are expensive.
The drawbacks of the headset type device are;
Therefore a long standing need has existed to provide a simple, low cost, novel, phone holder that would adapt to almost any phone and would comfortably, unrestrictedly, yet securely hold the phone to the users' mouth and ear. This new phone holder, that could be removed and replaced in seconds, would allow the users' hands, neck, and head to move freely and independently and would free the user from holding the phone. A search of other telephone and/or phone receiver holders was conducted and revealed no prior art like ours.